All in all, the 84th Academy Awards were largely forgettable. In the midst of this blandness, they set up a skit based on the idea of a 1939 Focus Group for “The Wizard of Oz.”. As I watched the piece, which had some funny moments, I was thinking to myself “What was the writer/director’s intent?” And basically, it was to slam the idea of common folk aiding the creative process. Personally, I felt that MR had been dissed. Continue reading »

I have read countless articles expressing the viewpoint that the new opportunities presented by New MR (e.g. social media listening, mobile, text analytics, MROCs, Crowdsourcing, neuro-monitoring, etc.) are merely new tools in our toolbox. I don’t agree with that politically correct argument. I think these new tools are the replacements. Which means “the survey” and “some groups” are going the way of the dodo bird. Continue reading »

If everything we’re meant to support is changing, then how will that impact the way our industry operates or the tools we bring to the battle? To be honest, I’m not sure. In theory, you could just continue to use the same tools we always have and simply modulate the sample to reflect the new target. But with the land under our feet literally changing, it seems clear we need to account for not only where the consumer stands today but where they will be tomorrow. Continue reading »

There were some great discussions that stemmed from my previous post about the “Limiting Adjective of ‘Marketing’ Research.” Some really insightful responses that exhibited multiple perspectives on the topic! The conversation also led to a question being asked in the GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) study, and early results showed that 42% said “yes, we need to develop a new term that is more reflective of what our business is today.” Even though this is not the majority, it does indicate a divide in how our industry views itself. I’m excited to continue the ride and see how things progress over the next few years. Continue reading »

All in all, it’s been a pretty challenging decade for marketers. The role of the CMO is being diminished; traditional brand channels are being marginalized. And the CEO has seemingly fallen in love overnight with social media alternatives. And what’s bad for marketing should be bad for marketing research. After all, we are merely a supporting act for the marketing department. Continue reading »

As The Lone Researcher (keeping that Wild Wild West metaphor going) in the crowd, I wasn’t sure how I would be perceived by my fellow attendees. I was pleasantly surprised that most folks I spoke to immediately saw the possibilities of Crowdsourcing in the MR tool kit, particularly as a replacement to ideation groups. The primary advantage of Crowdsourcing being the iterative nature of the work, which allows the crowd to continually improve on the original idea so you’re left with a perfectly cut gem (at least in theory). Continue reading »

Off to Mountain View, CA for the 1st Annual Crowdsortium Conference. Mountain View is best known as the home of Google and in fact the conference will be held within Google’s Headquarters. With apologies to Mark Twain, I do feel a bit like “A Jersey Researcher in the Crowdsourcing Court”. Even the agenda itself is wide open and speaks to the “anything is possible” entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, I can’t help but notice how different the mindset is from my world of MR. Continue reading »

By Kevin Lonnie, CEO of KL Communications

“The most imaginative influences often come from the most unlikely sources.”

The above is a quote from a recent TED Conference on nurturing the creative process.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

This theorem appears to be in …

The ‘60’s expression “Power to the People” might serve as the heart and inspiration of Crowdsourcing. Yet it is as disruptive and frightening to middle managers as those crazy hippies were to the Great Silent Majority almost half a century …